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The drama of the last two weeks has been about the future of nationally mandated health insurance, resuming government spending, extending the debt ceiling and avoiding national default. These are all important matters -- any one of them could be enough to stop a country dead in its tracks -- and the ordeal of October 2013 surely will be studied by scholars for years to come.

But in a way this month's crisis has been about even greater issues, not the sort that are debated on the floor of the House or Senate or even in political science classes but instead are the preoccupation of the philosophy department and the pulpit. We have been so consumed with avoiding default, or charting the barometric pressure inside the House Republican conference, or watching John Boehner balance what he wanted to do with what he needed to do, that we have overlooked the more enduring questions this episode has posed.

We knew from the start of this struggle that eventually the government would open and that eventually Washington would pay its bills. But we also know that this crisis has raised but not answered these questions, unavoidable in our private lives even if they are avoidable in lawmakers' public lives:

• When does principled resistance become stubbornness and intransigence?

House Republicans angered Democrats and some Republicans for their determination not to allow the regular functions of government to proceed until Obamacare was, variously, repealed, trimmed back or adjusted. Many of these lawmakers were elected from devoutly conservative districts where resistance to Obamacare is genuine and strong and where their election to Congress was fueled by their vows to fight Obamacare on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields, in the streets and in the hills.

Many of you will recognize that the latter was paraphrased from Winston Churchill's June 1940 "we shall never surrender" speech, which is saluted (as Churchill would say) by English-speaking people as the ultimate expression of political and moral determination. We celebrate it because we admire the cause in which he enlisted those brave words: the defeat of a brutal tyranny bent on world domination and the extermination of its enemies, both military and civilian.

Only a very few would create a moral equivalency between the drive to defeat Hitler and the drive to defeat Obamacare; there is a legitimate case to be made for proportion and for distinctions made on ethical grounds, for there is a grave difference between government-mandated insurance and government-sponsored genocide. But in questions of acknowledged lesser consequence, it is not as easy as the Tea Party critics say it is to draw the line between resistance and intransigence.

• When does the practical trump the principle?

From the start, Sen. John McCain of Arizona told his Republican colleagues that their effort was doomed to fail, that their one-House challenge to Obamacare was quixotic but doomed. "We were demanding something that was not achievable," he said in exasperation Tuesday night as he declared the GOP had "lost this battle."

His words had greater force after a fortnight of struggle than they did at the beginning of the capital confrontation. And yet many of the House rebels believed fervently that they had to undertake this battle, that to bow to the practical was to sacrifice the principle.

This is an enduring theme, and not only in conservative circles. Throughout the late 1980s, after two terms of Reaganomics, some conservatives argued that the only thing wrong with supply-side economics was that it hadn't been tried yet. In more recent days, Republican political figures have argued that the GOP's repeated retreat to the center in presidential elections (nominating Sen. Robert Dole in 1996 or former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012) had won the party nothing but defeat.

Often such arguments have been no more resonant than the bleats from academic socialists and communists that pure Marxism has yet to be attempted and that their cause has been besmirched by leaders like Lenin and Stalin, who warped a precious principle and were tyrants and not ideologues.

• When does standing for one principle violate other principles?

From the Republican viewpoint, the showdown that gripped the Capitol pit one widely held principle (antagonism toward Obamacare) against another one (financial responsibility). In cases like this, lawmakers have to weigh not only the moral value of one against the other but also the practical consequences of one against the other.

In the minds of mainstream Republicans, the Tea Partiers made the wrong choice. But in the minds of the rebels, they made the right choice, calculating that the sense of financial responsibility of their rivals would make them fold.

These rebels weren't the only ones playing that game, however. The Democrats made the same calculation, convincing themselves that the party of business would bend to business values, allowing them to keep Obamacare free from fetters. Of such calculations are crises made.

• When do we prize steely determination and when do we condemn it?

That sounds like a hard one, but it's really easy, which is why the country faced such a threat this month. We prize steely determination when we like a cause (integration is a good example) and we condemn it when we revile a cause (segregation, for instance).

• When does a leader's responsibility rest with expressing the will of his followers and when does it rest with serving a greater good? And does a leader have the right, or responsibility, to discern a greater good?

Welcome to John Boehner's world -- and to the prison of his position.

From the beginning he knew what his conservative wing wanted, and he knew that financial default was a political, financial and moral disaster. If he did not know it at the beginning, he surely knew a week into the struggle that there was little likelihood of reconciling what some of his supporters wanted and what the nation needed.

Mr. Boehner knew that his was a conundrum for the ages, a choice, like so much else in this episode, between competing perspectives -- and a test case in one of the hardest decisions in life, and in politics: when to fight on principle and when to quit in principle.

David Shribman, a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism, is executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Previously:

10/14/13 The upside of the shutdown
10/07/13 The key players in this latest Washington spectacle knew exactly what they were doing
09/23/13 President Obama faces a hostile House, a resurgent Russia and a sense of ... dare we call it malaise?
09/09/13 President Obama puts Syria to a vote in Congress, but must he respect the result?
08/19/13 Pragmatic vs. ideological: What does the GOP want in a president?
08/12/13 A touch of greatness
08/05/13 Captured by the North Koreans, the Pueblo's crew members suffered terribly, and some are suffering still
07/29/13 Politicians, heal thyselves: The president's latest campaign for change has little hope of succeeding
07/22/13 Latest example of a one-term president whose reputation has flourished after leaving office
07/08/13 Watergate's lone unmastered lesson
07/01/13 Before and after Gettysburg
06/24/13 Your life in the age of Big Data
06/17/13 America slips its bonds: Project Mercury lifted off in a more innocent time, but inspires us still
06/13/13 As the World War II veterans depart
06/03/13 Capitol culture shock: The Old Guard of the Senate valued honor most of all, and see little of it today
05/27/13 Patience is a virtue --- and a political strategy
05/20/13 Crossing sacred lines in Washington
05/06/13 The limited power of presidents
04/29/13 Living history on display
04/22/13 Social Security, 21st-century style: Dems call Obama a traitor
04/15/13 49 years, four months, 25 days: Today's America is as far removed from JFK's era as his was from World War I
04/08/13 The Senate as it once was
04/01/13 Connections and coincidence: History is full of mysterious relationships, including clusters of greatness
03/25/13 Where portraits tell the story of America's greatest conflict
03/18/13 A former president's correspondence reveals the power of letters, and the powerlessness of aging
03/11/13 Outrageous spectacle lead to a rational resolution on the budget? A nation can dream, can't it?
02/25/13 The one big thing Democrats and Republicans can actually agree on
02/18/13 Obama is wrong to make young people think college is mainly about making a living
02/11/13 The war inside the GOP
02/04/13 Presidential politics, frozen in place
01/28/13 Speech invokes past for present and future
01/14/13 If Obama's inaugural address is to be remembered at all
01/21/13 Identity crisis in the GOP
01/07/13 History meets firearms
12/31/12 In search of our better angels
12/24/12 Wounded in war, Inouye just kept serving his country
12/10/12 President as change agent
12/10/12 Another overtime election
12/03/12 Defining the Obama presidency: Our re-elected chief executive has the whip hand now, but how will he use
11/19/12 New Hampshire 2016
11/12/12 Obama's second chance
11/05/12 America's first martyr to free speech
10/29/12 Making hay in Iowa
10/15/12 When two men confronted each other from afar as civilization hung in the balance
10/08/12 If you look at the election a certain way, things don't seem so terrible
10/01/12 Debating the debates
09/24/12 Pessimists R Us
08/20/12 Obama remains a puzzle even as he asks the American people for a second chance
08/13/12 With Ryan, Romney upends the conversation
08/06/12 The real Romney remains hidden behind other people's opinions
07/30/12 What summer is for: How August can matter, and how Romney might use it
07/23/12 The Independent son of independent Maine promises to shake up Washington
07/16/12 The Rambler American
07/09/12 The Telstar revolution: Fifty years ago, a 3-foot orb was sent aloft and spawned a new era in communications
07/02/12 It's got only four electoral votes, but Romney and Obama will be fighting for them
06/25/12 A little noted rebellion over a lonely stretch of land helps tell the American story
06/18/12 You're nothing special: Luck is what you make of it . . . and what it makes of you
06/11/12 Anybody can talk authoritatively about the presidential election. Here's how
06/04/12 Candidates love to ally themselves with admired presidents, in sometimes unexpected ways
05/29/12 Americans aren't in a new burst of patriotism but they are in a new burst of appreciation for the military
05/21/12 Inside out: Almost nothing about this year's presidential election conforms to conventional analysis
05/14/12 Lugar grew into an elder statesman, which is why he'll be leaving the Senate
05/07/12 50 years later, MacArthur's farewell to arms continues to inspire
04/30/12 The likability factor: We're going to find out how important it is in these troubled times
04/23/12 Romney's four battles: With the nomination essentially in hand, he must turn to new challenges
04/16/12 For GOPers, expect the frustration to build, not abate
04/09/12 The political battles you cannot see
04/02/12 Romney's roadmap: Doing better in Democratic states may complicate his fall campaign
03/26/12 Romney struggles with same GOP forces his father faced long ago
03/19/12 The writer and the president
03/12/12 Romney could learn from his rivals after Super Tuesday
03/05/12 The GOP race continues, and Republicans continue to grouse about their choices
02/27/12 The turnout threat: when voters vamoose
02/20/12 The Winter's Tale: Republicans are engaged in a 'problem play,' full of psychological, and real, drama
02/13/12 Which Ike to like?
02/08/12 A tale of two elections: Voters today are making their most profound choice since 1912
01/30/12 Whither the GOP establishment?
01/23/12 The Democratic coalition is breaking up
01/09/12 The verdict that wasn't
01/02/12 These are the keys to who will persist
12/19/11 Another Gingrich rebellion
12/12/11 A defining fight for the GOP
12/05/11 A distinct lack of enthusiasm
11/28/11 For GOPers, the winds are beginning to pick up, the horizon is darkening
11/21/11 Today's polarized politics . . . blame FDR and the political scientists
11/11/11The sporting life
11/07/11 Ron Paul, true believer
10/31/11 Why Cain isn't able
10/10/11 GOP starting over
10/03/11 The Forgotten War of 1812
09/26/11 The way we live now
09/19/11 The crisis this time
09/11/11 But what will it mean?
09/05/11 A horse race column: Who might win the GOP nomination and how it might unfold
08/29/11 The vacuum calls
08/22/11 Passion and politics: How Barack Obama and Mitt Romney got crowded into the same dangerous corner
08/15/11 Eleanor's little village
08/08/11 The agony of August
08/01/11 The politics of the impossible: What a country this might be if the political class served the broad interests of the majority
07/25/11 Pennant fever grips 'Burgh
07/18/11 Exemplar of an era
07/11/11 On summer
07/04/11 The soul of the party
06/27/11 What the Secretary said
06/20/11 Romney has big advantages over his rivals, but they will be coming after him
06/06/11 One question each
05/30/11 The 14-week challenge
05/23/11 Delay tactics
05/16/11 Republicans are waiting
05/09/11 Bin Laden is dead. What does it mean?
05/02/11 From nobodies to nominees
04/25/11 The founders left slavery for future generations to settle, and we still haven't fully come to terms with it
04/18/11 From audacious to cautious
04/11/11 Dreaming of space
12/12/10 The GOP takes control
12/06/10 DECEMBER 7
11/29/10 GOP presidential hopefuls already are lining up local supporters in what is now a red state
11/22/10 Burning down the House
11/15/10 Institutions of higher learning are finally beginning to teach important lifeskills
11/04/10 The war has just begun
11/01/10 Echoes of a speech 40 years ago this week still resonate today
10/25/10 50 years ago America chose between two men who were dramatically different --- and eerily similar